


Let's Make This Last Forever

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 03:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1051767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A million years ago, I saw <a href="http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab284/alwayseven/images.jpg">this picture</a> and wanted to write shmoopy first date Niall/Liam. It only took two years to write 1000 words. Sweet. This was supposed to be for the "young" prompt on my kiss bingo card, but then no kissing happened. This might be the fluffiest, surgariest thing I've ever written.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Let's Make This Last Forever

**Author's Note:**

> A million years ago, I saw [this picture](http://i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab284/alwayseven/images.jpg) and wanted to write shmoopy first date Niall/Liam. It only took two years to write 1000 words. Sweet. This was supposed to be for the "young" prompt on my kiss bingo card, but then no kissing happened. This might be the fluffiest, surgariest thing I've ever written.

The pier is a blur of activity, a riot of sounds and smells and sights that makes the energy buzz like a high beneath Liam’s skin. It’s just like he’s seen in the movies, the carnival jutting out over the ocean as though suspended in air, the whirl of color, the people, everything spinning wildly around them. 

It’s their first time in the States and already it’s more than he’d imagined, everything brighter and sharper and more colorful than anything his head was ever capable of drumming up.

“We should go,” Liam said when they saw it for the first time, driving past the pier on the way to shoot the video. Niall had his fingers to his mouth, working at the nail on his index finger like he did when he was jittery, nerves just below the surface. Liam curled his hand around NIall’s wrist, pulling to fit their fingers together. “Let’s go. It’ll be fun.” 

It had taken some pleading but now it’s just himself and Niall and a member of their security team following at a respectable distance of a hundred feet. 

Around them the midway is a shock to all the senses, the color and flash of the rides, the shouts of the passengers, the scent of deep fried carnival food combining with the salt air of the Pacific. Liam tries to take it all in, careful of everything around him fading away and disappearing before he’s had a chance to breathe it in. He can’t help looking at Niall, grinning at him fast and bright, this easy comfort in the way he knocks his shoulder against Liam’s, so pleased to be here, just the two of them. 

It’s a pretty ace place for a first date, he can’t help thinking, though he’s not even sure if that’s what they’re calling it. He likes the way Niall curves his body towards his, seeking out his presence. It’s been that way for a while now, months at least, since halfway through the X Factor tour. He doesn’t know when or how it started to change but he’s cataloging every moment, every shift between them that’s brought them closer together, brought them to this moment, sharing this, just the two of them. 

They can’t hold hands, there are eyes everywhere, but Liam’s palm itches with it, with wanting to tuck their fingers together and walk down the boardwalk with Niall’s hand in his. If they were two normal lads, not two fifths of an almost famous boy band, he might reach for Niall’s hand, unafraid, as they walked the length of the pier with the sun setting over the ocean. 

He settles for letting their hips bump as they walk, curling his thumb around Niall’s palm like it’s an accident. It’s not enough but it makes Niall dart a look over, eyes bright and laughing, cheeks tinged pink.

Everything between them has been cautious, tentative, reaching, stumbling towards each other, both of them careful of startling the other away. Liam lives for that bright, wide open smile Niall gives him, takes it like it’s a gift, something precious to hold onto, though he’s got a smile like that for each of the boys. 

It’s not that Liam would trade what’s coming, that breakthrough he can feel they’re on the cusp of, this buzz of anticipation in the air. Their first single is in the can and it’s good, it’s really _good_. But he can’t help that wistful tug in the pit of his chest, wishing for a moment he could pull Niall in and kiss him here in the middle of hundreds of people and not care who saw. 

They end up at the point of the pier, standing as close as Liam hopes they can get away with, hips touching as they take in the glitter riding the surface of the sea, the sky fading to a blur of pinks and oranges, the scent of salt in the air.

“This would be a good time for a kiss,” Liam says all casual and quiet, leaning his weight on the railing. He’s been thinking about it since he met Niall at the door of his hotel room, Niall’s eyes bright, his cheeks flushed like he’d gone for a run. He’s thought about it through the carousel and the tilt-a-whirl, through sharing fried dough and a large coke, through Liam attempting to and failing to win Niall a blue stuffed elephant. Now, with the horizon a wonder of color, like a backdrop in some romantic comedy, all Liam wants is to close the distance between them and touch his mouth to Niall’s. If this were a movie, there’d be a soft, sweet song playing and Liam would duck his head and catch Niall in a kiss, wrap an arm around his waist and tug him in. 

“Would be,” Niall agrees, mimicking Liam’s pose with his forearms on the splintered wood. He settles for tucking his chin against Liam’s shoulder briefly. Niall smells sugary sweet. Liam wants it like an ache. He wants to know if Niall will taste like the bright blue candy floss they bought earlier, wants to lick the bubblegum flavor from his tongue. 

“This was a good first date,” Niall says then, so soft Liam’s breath catches in his throat, careful of missing whatever he might say next. He can feel Niall’s breath against his skin, the way it skitters over him and makes him shiver a little. Niall looks a little unsure when he looks up, unsure like he rarely is. It’s one of the things Liam liked about Niall from the very beginning, the way nothing ever rattled him, the way he could be the one to settle Harry’s nerves or pull Louis out of whatever insanity he’d disappeared into.

Liam doesn’t know how but he wants to be that for Niall. He reaches for Niall’s hand where it’s hanging over the railing. His palm is warm when he ghosts his fingers across Niall’s skin. “Don’t forget,” he mumbles, lips a breath from Niall’s cheek. “You owe me a kiss, later.” 

He turns away then, afraid he won’t be able to if they stay like that a moment longer. 

Niall’s smile is bright, eyes gone soft at the corners as he catches up to Liam, the two of them walking back into the glitter and roar. “I won’t forget,” Niall promises.


End file.
